


Love Hereafter

by cyanideath



Category: Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann
Genre: Canon Divergent, Drama, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-03-25 23:16:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13845090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyanideath/pseuds/cyanideath
Summary: Simon let chance after chance slip by to tell Kamina exactly how he felt, and then, suddenly and brutally, he ran out of chances. That is, until seven years later, when Kamina shows up to Simon's wedding unannounced, and very much alive. Equal parts clueless and confused, the duo try to unravel the mystery of just why the dead man walks at such a critical point during each respective life and death.





	1. Chapter 1

All day, Simon’s stomach had been tied up in a huge knot.

As everyone drank coffee, as everyone geared up for battle, as everyone _fought_ battles against the Beastmen—that sensation remained through all of it. The entire day passed by in a stretched-out haze beneath the pressure of this huge and expanding ball of tension.

The Gunmen had cleared the area strangely early that day, and although the sun had barely begun to dip beneath the blue horizon, dinner had already been prepared and eaten. Finally, the sun was setting, but Simon’s stress ball was still very much alive and kicking.

It wasn’t like Simon didn’t know why the knot was there. It was all because of Kamina, and it was all because Simon knew just what he was about to say to him.

In truth, he had been more than ready to say this very particular thing to Kamina for several days.

"Umm, Aniki?" Simon tugged on the cloth of Kamina’s cape, though it felt as if someone else was carrying out the action. "Can I please, um—talk to you someplace? Someplace... private?"

If Simon’s hesitation had been obvious, Kamina sure hadn’t been one to catch on.

"Ah! Simon!" The tall man cheered. "Just the man I’ve been looking for! Come with me and we can talk over here!"

Kamina was always happiest after eating a big meal. Simon would be lying if he said he hadn’t planned it strategically—hadn't suggested and worked much harder than usual to help Yoko and Kamina with gathering an extra round of food and water earlier the same day for that very reason. However, Kamina genuinely surprised Simon with the assurance in the second half of his statement. That was supposed to have been Simon's line... er, more or less.

Simon trekked dumb behind Kamina, his mouth agape. Kamina’s cape flowed like a river of red behind him and it was all Simon could see in this line of vision for a moment, the fabric kicked up high by the force of the man’s steps combined with what little wind blew in the area.

Ever since the leader had become inseparable from it, Simon always thought—to himself, anyway—that Kamina looked like a great king in his father’s cape. It was like a royal heirloom passed down from generation to generation, and Kamina’s broad, manly shoulders fit the bill more perfectly than any other for donning such regal garments.

But if Kamina was a king on the Surface, then what did that make Simon?

"Alright, here. This should be fine." Kamina did an about-face and landed a hand on Simon’s shoulder to stop the boy from walking. Simon only looked down at Kamina’s hand, and then jerked his gaze back up into the male's wild, shimmering red eyes.

"You go first," Kamina said. "What’d you wanna talk to me about?"

"Uh," Simon’s mouth fell open again. All of the sudden, he couldn’t think. "No, it’s—it’s fine Kamina." The digger kicked himself mentally before he even finished talking. His shoulders slumped and he sighed. "You—you can go first."

"You sure, little buddy?" Kamina asked, followed by a grin. It was almost teasing. "You look like you’re about near blowing a damn gasket unless you get to say whatever’s on your mind _A.S.A.P._ " The blue haired male paused, then remembered something. "Hey, I thought I told you to call me Aniki."

_Crap—was Simon really being that obvious?_

"S-Sorry, Aniki!" Simon squeaked, holding his hands up in a nervous, apologetic gesture. This whole thing was already going about as great as an impromptu fishing trip in the desert.

"You okay, Simon?" Kamina leaned into Simon’s face, unwittingly backing the boy into the rough trunk of a tree. Simon let out another quick squeak, this one much softer than the last.

"I'm fine!" Simon squeezed his eyes shut, cheeks flushed the same red as a bad sunburn. "Step back please!"

Rather than hearing all rustling leaves and retreating feet, Simon instead felt a large warm hand clamp down on his forehead. "Huh, that’s funny. It doesn’t feel like you’re running any fever. You’ve been acting real jittery all day Simon—past _few_ days, actually—and I swore it was because you’d gotten sick and didn’t tell me. You sure nothing’s wrong?"

Simon swallowed a lump of dryness lodged in his throat that had all of a sudden become wildly apparent. He then took a deep breath in through his nose.

"Aniki, _please..._ "

"Your ears are super red." The male began feeling all up and down the sides of Simon’s face with the backs of his hands.

"Aniki—" Simon tried.

"Hey, you _are_ a bit warm h—"

 ** _"KAMINA!!!"_** Simon shouted with all his strength, hands clenched into fists at his chest. His breath came out heavily as he tried to calm down.

"Simon?" Kamina looked aghast. "What the hell’s gotten into you?"

"Please, Aniki," Simon trembled. "Please, just take a step back."  _I can’t take it,_ he blushed, his eyes shut tight. _I can’t take it if you stand that close or if you touch my face like that._

Kamina did take a step back at that, arms stretched out in a gesture of surrender. "There," he said to the boy, a dry humor in his voice. "How’s that. Far away enough for ya?"

"That’s," Simon's shoulders slumped and he heaved a sigh. "That’s fine, Aniki."

The boy relaxed, but he still couldn’t bring his lidded eyes to meet his 'elder brother’s.'

"Uh... Did you still wanna talk?" Kamina asked. His tone was indecipherable—befuddled, if anything.

No matter what had just happened, Simon did still want Kamina to know how he felt, and he was still afraid of someone seeing them and interrupting, or listening in on their conversation. Simon gave a tiny, shy little nod and then took Kamina’s hand.

"Where we going?" Kamina lowered his voice as he trailed after Simon beyond the cluster of trees.

"Quiet," Simon whispered. "Just... follow me."

When they finally reached the clearing within the patch of thick, tall grass and were concealed by its shadows, Simon stopped. Through the relative silence and the chirping of crickets, Kamina smirked.

"Well, Simon," he put his hands on his hips, "I gotta hand it to you. It don’t get much more private than this."

"Sorry I... yelled before," Simon began, looking at his feet. "I just..."

"You’ve been stressed lately," Kamina smiled warmly down at the boy, pressing his hand into Simon’s shoulder again and massaging deep into the muscle with his thumb. "I get it. But you gotta remember Simon, we’re _here_ for each other—we’re blood brothers. You can always come talk to me if something is bothering you, or if anything at all is getting to you and you need to let it out."

Simon did meet Kamina’s eyes then. All of the sudden, the boy didn’t have a nervous feeling or feel the knot tying itself in his stomach at all anymore. "Aniki, I... thought for sure that you were going to confess to Yoko, or that she was going to confess to you, and then the two of you were going to get together. I... honestly thought about that a lot."

Kamina’s eyes widened, and Simon saw him press his lips together. _Was that too bold?_   Simon wondered. Or worse... had Kamina put two and two together and figured the whole thing out before Simon even got the chance to say the all-important words?

Instead, Kamina shocked Simon by swiftly debunking both of the boy's fears.

"I know," the man said calmly.

"You... what?!" Simon stiffened as straight as a board.

Kamina chuckled at the reaction. "I knew it all along! I knew that you were worried about me and Yoko getting together. But I promise you blood brother, that is absolutely not going to happen. That was actually what I wanted to talk to you about!"

"What?" Simon’s heart was pounding a mile a minute inside of his chest, and he felt blood rushing up to his cheeks too. "What do you mean by that, Aniki? I-I don’t... I don’t understand." Was it possible? Did Kamina feel the same way as he did? Simon decided to ask him; he had to know for sure.

"Don’t you like her, Aniki?"

"Yoko, you mean?" Kamina scratched his chin, looking up towards the sky, with its flickering stars and its moon coming into view. "Hmm... Well, sure I do. She’s got spunk, and class, and she can keep up with me and you. Plus she’s _super smokin’ hot._ " Kamina held out his hands in front of his well toned chest as if he were struggling to hold an unrealistically large boobie in each one.

Meanwhile, Simon’s chest seized up tight around his heart. He knew it. He knew that Kamina would never like someone like him. Not the way Simon had been discovering for so long, oh so gradually, that he liked Kamina.

"But," Kamina continued with a curious enough tone to cause Simon’s head to snap up. "I don’t care about her nearly as much as I care about you, Simon. And I never will. Definitely not in the same way."

Simon focused on blinking his eyes to keep himself from bursting wide open from happiness. _Keep it together, Simon—don’t overreact._ He listened intently as Kamina continued.

"I know you like her, Simon," Kamina smiled with nothing but love in his eyes for the younger boy as Simon himself deflated. "I know all too well the feelings you’re going through, but I’d never go as far as to go after someone who I know that my blood brother would be all over in a heartbeat. That’s why instead, I’m gonna be here for you, all day every day, until Yoko finally realizes what a great catch my little bro Simon the Digger is. Hell, she might even realize it now!" He elbowed Simon lightly in the side and fluffed the boy’s hair up with one of his rough hands as if the elder was the best big bro under the Sun. And the heartbreaking part was, it was true. Kamina _was_ the best.

Simon closed his eyes and smiled peacefully, shaking his head back and forth.

 _"Mm-mm,"_  the dark haired boy said. "I’m not in love with Yoko, Aniki. I promise."

"You’re not?"

"Nope," Simon smirked. "But you are, Aniki. That’s why you’re gonna go tell her how you feel. And I’ll back you up!"

 _"What?"_ Kamina choked. Then it seemed that he wasn't so shocked that he couldn't laugh. "You’ll back me up, huh?" He teased, bumping their hips together. Simon felt his groin tighten, like the raging pit of teenage hormones that it was, but he chose to ignore it.

"Look who’s all mature and big-talking all of a sudden," the elder continued. "And you’re _sure_ you don’t fancy Yoko? Not even with those _huuuuuge_ bazongas of hers?"

"Look who’s talking!" Simon stuck out his tongue. "You can’t keep your eyes off of them for _five seconds!_ " He blew a raspberry.

"That’s not true!" Kamina gave a light punch to Simon’s shoulder, and then threw his head back and cackled. But as the teen’s tan cheeks flushed red, even _he_ knew that the lie was bullshit.

"Let’s go, Kamina," Simon nudged, tugging Kamina gently by his pants leg. "Yoko’s still awake for sure, so if we hurry back, you guys might even be able to talk everything out tonight! It’s obvious that she's super into you," Simon forced a smile. "So the sooner the better, right?"

"You think so, little bro?" Kamina asked, a grin plastered on his face as he straightened up and smoothed an instinctive two thumbs over his eyebrows.

"I _know_ so," Simon nodded. "Now let’s go!"

Simon clasped his hands behind his back and turned, striding resolutely in the direction from which the two of them had come—back toward the camp. But when he felt a big, warm hand close around his, a million fluttering things came flooding into his stomach. His cheeks turned pink.

"...Ani...ki?"

"Simon," Kamina breathed.

The boy turned around a bit to look at Kamina. When he did, the bluenette had an uncharacteristic sheepish smile on his face. "You sure it’s okay with you if I go for Yoko?" His ‘big bro’ asked. "It’s just, I swore up and down until now that you really liked her, and the idea of us hooking up seemed really to bother you before, and well..."

"It’s fine." Simon turned all the way around and gave the man a reassuring grin. "You really like her, Aniki. You two should be happy together. You and me, we’re both still partners right?" That last part felt cheeky of the young digger to add, and he almost didn’t say it. But the statement couldn’t have felt right to the young boy without it, if he was being fair.

Kamina took a confident few steps closer, still holding onto one of Simon’s hands. The boy kept his gaze trained on Kamina’s face, until he couldn’t even do that anymore. When Kamina’s soft, warm lips left a kiss on his forehead, the digger nearly stopped breathing.

"Yeah, you’re right," Kamina said. "The two of us, we'll be partners from today and into tomorrow and on until forever, there’s no doubt about that. So thanks a ton, little brother—you’re the greatest."

Simon brought himself to nod, letting out a little _"Right,"_ before Kamina turned around and they both began to make their way back to the campsite where Team Gurren had settled for the night.

To Simon’s amazement, Kamina never let the younger boy’s hand go until the both of them saw the first flicker of the roaring fire—meaning that the two of them had journeyed hand in hand for the entire walk back, whether Kamina had been awake to that fact or not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was the first of a two-part story because lord is this fandom ever in need of more Simo/Kami love. This was also my first GL fic in a while—hope you enjoyed!


	2. Chapter 2

Simon wanted to punch him.

Simon wanted to take Kamina by that dumb chain that held the dumb collar together on that dumb red cape and he wanted to punch him right in the face.

Kamina was dead. Dead, dead, dead. He had been dead for seven years, anyway. Probably more—Simon had kind of staved off counting after the pain had decidedly split his chest in two and officially multiplied the actual number of days that Kamina was gone by two, then three, then four. It could've been fourteen or forty-nine years for all he cared. It all fed into the same weightless, timeless eternity anyway. An eternity that Simon had finally begun to accept.

"What are you doing here?" Simon repeated again. He was dressed in full-on wedding attire—or, at least, what Leeron and Kinon and everyone else had deemed suitable attire for a wedding. Simon was dressed to the tens in all white and _Nia_ —Nia looked _radiant._ And yet, the bells ringing in Simon's ears were far from angelic. He wanted to murder this stupid, stupid wedding crasher. "You're supposed to be _dead!_ " He squealed. "As in _not alive!_ As in _not here!_ "

"Wow! Thanks _ever so_ for the warm welcome!" The blunet scoffed, as cheerful as if he hadn't been decaying in a hole in the ground for the past near-decade. "By the way—that a rage-boner, or are you just happy to see me?"

The boner twitched. The crowd gasped.

Simon woke up from yet another nightmare.

 

 _You've gotta get ahold of yourself, Simon._  He straightened his tie in front of the little mirror, his eyes squeezed shut. _This is all very terrible, and you very much should probably be seeing a therapist about this, but at the very least there's one, solitary good thing that you can tell yourself in all this—it_ isn't real!

"It isn't real," he spoke aloud, in an attempt to cement the thought into the material world. "It's all just an impossibly long dream, one where you always wake up. Kamina isn't _actually—_ "

"Kamina isn't actually what?"

Simon wasn't able to react for a moment. How could he? Hearing the voice of your deceased not-beloved in your head, on the _day_ of your wedding, was kind of like, an event horizon for a person like Simon to pass. It was something other people did, and other people talked about, but not him. Simon was too level-headed and well-adjusted for that—er... _The-Emo-Phase-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named_ notwithstanding.

But hearing the voice of the deceased _again?_ That simply meant that it was time to get some help.

"Hey!" _'Kamina'_ (for simplicity's sake, and for lack of better descriptive terminology) tried again for Simon's attention, and Simon swore he saw Kamina's fingers snapping in front of his face. Or rather, he swore he _hallucinated_ them snapping in front of his face, since there was no way that this was—"Hey, Simon—by any chance, are you ignoring me?"

—this was _not happening._

"Yes, I'm ignoring you, Kamina," Simon droned, eyes staring straight forward, as if he could will them to see through the tanned hand that was stretched out before his face. "Considering it's thirty minutes before the ceremony on my _wedding day—_ "

"Ah yeah," Kamina interrupted, "The big _'I Do.'_ How's that going for you? You excited? Nervous? _Relieved_ now that your _big brother's—_ "

As Kamina blabbered on and on, and Simon looked at him harder and harder, smelled the scent of the outdoors that he carried on him, felt the heat that clung to his clothing and his hair filling up the room, there was only one thing that Simon felt was absolutely certain about Kamina's sudden appearance. And that was that it was completely, indubitably, irrefutably... real. This was truly Kamina. And he was truly standing before him, nattering and chortling, as if nothing had ever freaking happened.

"Get. Out." Simon's teeth gritted.

"What?" Kamina's eyes looked so big and innocent that it almost hurt. "But I—"

Simon's fists clenched all of a sudden, and judging by the flinch given in response, even the paragon of all that is masculine felt threatened that _Simon_ might lash out. Meanwhile, Simon's vision was a molten, melted blur, and he could barely hear himself as the screams exploded from his chest. As _he_ exploded.

_"GET OUT! GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE! LEAVE! CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!"_

 

Simon's hands shook as he took another sip from the glass of water.

"It all just felt so real..." His voice was still trembling as Rossiu nodded understandingly from the settee positioned across from Simon's single-person chair. "It was like he was really here, Rossiu. And then he wasn't. I don't..." Simon was struggling not to cry. _He_ wasn't even sure what he felt yet—the last thing he wanted was for people to go assuming. For rumors to go spreading. For people to go talking. "I think I'm going crazy, honestly. That's the only explanation, right?"

"Hm." Rossiu seemed to think for a moment. "It's true that Kamina's body was buried there by the members of Team Dai-Gurren, but..."

"'But?'" Simon asked, his eyebrow quirking a bit. "There should be no 'but.'"

Rossiu shook his head. "No. It's probably nothing." He stood, placing his hand on Simon's shoulder. "I'm glad you told me about this, Simon. I may not truly be a priest, but if I may offer some advice... I think it's normal that you're experiencing things at this time, in this place." His friend smiled then, and Simon felt his own face warm up. "This is your spirit's manner of processing emotions that your heart may have locked away long ago. Even if we build pain a home in the past, it may follow alongside us a bit longer, until its true journey ends. I believe that you should find joy in knowing that your love for your brother has followed you this far, but be wary not to let it consume you." He smiled kindly. "I know you cared for him deeply, so it's perfectly fine to feel as if he is here with you. If you welcome him to the ceremony with open arms, you may yourself be surprised by how at peace you feel."

Simon was speechless. He met Rossiu's gaze, and gave a small smile and a nod.

"Pish posh, Rossiu." He grinned—and his heart, for a short moment, felt a bit lighter. "You look like a priest just fine to me."

 

Rossiu had, for the most part, been right.

The bittersweet ceremony had gone without a hitch and Nia, as expected, had vanished. In that moment, the pain he felt for Kamina was outweighed by the pain and mourning he felt for a future—his best friend and the second love of his life—lost. A future with _her._ A future where flowers and sunsets weren't all he could remember her by. But a future with the messenger for the Anti-Spiral, Simon knew, had never been more than a dream itself to begin with. If he was being truthful, putting on a brave face for all those attending had been the most agonizing part of the gathering itself—however, he had pulled it off as perfectly as the perfection that didn't exist.

Initially, he hadn't planned to leave Kamina City so abruptly after the ceremony ended.

He had planned to stay behind, at least for a little while, and see to that everything was still as it should be, and that their civilization was able to continue running smoothly. He hadn't planned to hand the core drill over to Gimmy until later, and to have his decision to leave by himself accepted and  _understood_ by Yoko, by Leeron.

That was why, instead of heading for distant lands, Simon was heading for the field nearby Kamina's grave, where Nia had begun planting flowers shortly before her and Simon's wedding ceremony.

The perfume permeated the air, and Simon breathed it in eagerly. It reminded him of her, and it also distracted him from why he was really here. After all, he wasn't ready to admit that he secretly kind of wanted to dig Kamina's body up, to prove Rossiu's short-lived musing wrong. If he gave into that desire, then it would be almost like admitting that he really was crazy.

Weak, for only the moment, and tired as all get-out, Simon slumped to the ground; his forearms rested on his knees as he stared at the grass. The breeze that blew by was welcome, but only half-enjoyed.

"I knew I'd find you here." Simon felt two eyes home in on the suit that he was still wearing. "You look good, by the way."

Simon's heart seized up. It was Kamina again. The real-not-real Kamina from before. Simon squeezed his eyes shut, as if to shield himself from reality. Then he realized, and felt silly. He looked up at Kamina and edges of the radiant sunset looked like fire caught tips of the man's wild hair.

Simon's heart pumped thickly in his chest, and he dared to look Kamina in the eyes as the man sat down next to him. "You're real, aren't you?" He asked. "You're not dead. You never were. Somehow... you didn't die." Simon mumbled, as if repeated the same idea over and over, rephrased, would somehow make it more believable. But the bottom line was that somewhere, deep down, Simon had accepted that Kamina was dead. He had accepted it as fact, and as something that couldn't change. And to see him here, as alive as alive could get, well—it was a _little bit..._

"Freaky, ain't it?" Kamina grinned. There was a certain child-like sheepishness in his voice that Simon hadn't heard in a long time. "You're still mad at me," he mused. "You're supposing I lied about being dead. And now that I said that, you're wondering if you should forgive me."

Simon looked on at him in silence, his gaze alone confirming the man's words.

"Except I _did_ die, Simon," Kamina uttered morbidly, and Simon heard the ringing in his ears again before it dispersed in order to allow him to hear out the rest of what Kamina had to say. "That's the part I just don't get. At first I thought I came back because you wanted me to, which I was all ready and willing to accept, but then you got all mad and started yelling for me to crawl back into my grave damn near, so now I'm honestly—"

"Hold on a minute." Simon cut him off. "You came _back?_ "

"I know how it sounds." Kamina was quick to clarify. "But one minute I was a maggot's midnight snack and the next minute I was in that labyrinth thingy and then the next minute I was outside your wedding chapel and it was just like I _knew_ you were inside and I had to go find you. But I also knew I was alive, unlike my other two memories since dying. Like I said, I was certain that it was you who did it. Somehow, some way... you took me and brought me back to life."

Simon just stared at him, dumbstruck for a moment as he processed the information.

"Well, then... we have to tell the others."

"The others?" Kamina stiffened, as if he had forgotten that there were 'others.' "You mean like Yoko and Ron and Forehead Kid? Like those 'others'?"

Simon shrugged, but his face was still relaxed. Blank. "Well yeah, I guess. I kind of meant like, everyone. Isn't that the only way to prove that this isn't me—or you—being crazy?"

"'Crazy?' Hah! Have some respect!" Kamina sat up straight, puffed his chest out a little bit. "I, for one, know _I'm_ not losing my marbles. What I know is what I just told you! Besides..."

"Besides _what?_ " Simon asked, playing the snippy to Kamina's snooty.

"Well," Kamina cleared his throat into his fist emphatically. "Since I'm alive again and all— _however_ it happened—I kind of thought that you'd want to have me all to your _self_ for a little bit, is all..."

Simon felt his cheeks get warm, and he turned his face to hide it in his collar. When he finally dared to peek at Kamina, he noticed that his face was red too, and that he was also staring off at a patch of grass. Simon felt a flood of butterflies within his stomach and a light fluttering in his chest—all of a sudden he was fourteen again, and it was almost as if nothing had changed at all since then.

The only difference was that now, he knew what butterflies _were._

"Maybe you're right." Simon laughed, airy and light, bumping Kamina mischievously with his shoulder. "Maybe it _can_ wait a little bit."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. This is definitely gonna be more than two parts. Also smut incoming. (Not really but kind of.)


End file.
